Editing Vanilla Sky (section)

===Critical response===
On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], 42% of 173 critic reviews are positive and the average rating is 5.3/10. The site's consensus states: "An ambitious mix of genres, ''Vanilla Sky'' collapses into an incoherent jumble. Cruise's performance lacks depth, and it's hard to feel sympathy for his narcissistic character."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vanilla_sky/ |title= Vanilla Sky |website= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date= March 5, 2025 |archive-date= March 29, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100329163146/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vanilla_sky/ |url-status= live }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100 based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web |title= Vanilla Sky |url= https://www.metacritic.com/movie/vanilla-sky |website= [[Metacritic]] |access-date= February 22, 2020 |archive-date= December 20, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211220102837/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/vanilla-sky |url-status= live }}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a grade "D−" on a scale from A to F.<ref>{{cite web |date= 9 August 2014 |last= Busch |first= Anita |title= B Grade For 'Turtles': What CinemaScores Mean And Why Exit Polling Matters |url= https://deadline.com/2014/08/b-grade-for-turtles-what-cinemascores-mean-and-why-exit-polling-matters-816538/ |website= [[Deadline Hollywood]] |access-date= May 28, 2022 |archive-date= October 9, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221009080339/https://deadline.com/2014/08/b-grade-for-turtles-what-cinemascores-mean-and-why-exit-polling-matters-816538/ |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]]'s printed review of ''Vanilla Sky'' awarded the film three out of four stars:

{{Cquote|Think it all the way through, and Cameron Crowe's ''Vanilla Sky'' is a scrupulously moral picture. It tells the story of a man who has just about everything, thinks he can have it all, is given a means to have whatever he wants, and loses it because—well, maybe because he has a [[conscience]]. Or maybe not. Maybe just because life sucks. Or maybe he only thinks it does. This is the kind of movie you don't want to analyze until you've seen it two times.}}

Ebert interpreted the ending as an explanation for "the mechanism of our confusion", rather than a device that tells "us for sure what actually happened."<ref name="Ebert">{{cite news |date=December 14, 2001 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Vanilla Sky |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001 |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |via=RogerEbert.com |access-date=January 1, 2024 |archive-date=December 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221217120338/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001 |url-status=live }}</ref>  [[Film criticism|Film critic]] [[Richard Roeper]] ranked the film the second best of 2001.<ref name="Roeper">{{cite web |last= Roeper |first= Richard |author-link= Richard Roeper |title= Ebert and Roeper Top Ten Lists (2000-2005)) |url= http://www.innermind.com/misc/e_r_top.htm |website= The Inner Mind |access-date= February 24, 2013 |archive-date= December 17, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221217120339/http://www.innermind.com/misc/e_r_top.htm |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[Stephen Holden]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' calls ''Vanilla Sky'' a "highly entertaining, erotic [[science-fiction]] thriller that takes Mr. Crowe into [[Steven Spielberg]] territory", but then says: "As it leaves behind the real world and begins exploring life as a waking dream (this year's most popular theme in [[Hollywood (film industry)|Hollywood]] movies with lofty ideas), ''Vanilla Sky'' loosens its emotional grip and becomes a disorganised and abstract if still-intriguing meditation on parallel themes. One is the quest for eternal life and eternal youth; another is guilt and the ungovernable power of the [[unconscious mind]] to undermine science's [[utopia]]n discoveries. David's redemption ultimately consists of his coming to grips with his own mortality, but that redemption lacks conviction."<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |last= Holden |first= Stephen |author-link= Stephen Holden |title= FILM REVIEW; Plastic Surgery Takes A Science Fiction Twist |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DEED8133FF937A25751C1A9679C8B63 |access-date= December 2, 2018 |work= [[The New York Times]] |date= December 14, 2001 |archive-date= October 13, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071013221729/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DEED8133FF937A25751C1A9679C8B63 |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[Salon.com]] called ''Vanilla Sky'' an "aggressively plotted puzzle picture, which clutches many allegedly deep themes to its heaving bosom without uncovering even an onion-skin layer of insight into any of them."<ref name="salon">{{cite web |last1=Zacharek |first1=Stephanie |title="Vanilla Sky" |url=http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2001/12/14/vanilla/index.html |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |date=12 April 2001 |access-date=December 2, 2018 |archive-date=February 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222025419/http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2001/12/14/vanilla/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The review [[Rhetorical question|rhetorically asks]]: "Who would have thought that Cameron Crowe had a movie as bad as ''Vanilla Sky'' in him? It's a punishing picture, a betrayal of everything that Crowe has proved he knows how to do right. ... But the disheartening truth is that we can see Crowe taking all the right steps, the most Crowe-like steps, as he mounts a spectacle that overshoots boldness and ambition and idiosyncrasy and heads right for arrogance and pretension—and those last two are traits I never would have thought we'd have to ascribe to Crowe."<ref name="salon"/> Edward Guthmann of the [[San Francisco Chronicle]] gave the film 2/4 and wrote: "The film's aim—to dazzle and inspire—is sapped by Cruise's vein-popping, running-the-marathon performance."<ref name="sfgate">{{cite news |date= December 14, 2001 |last= Guthmann |first= Edward |title= Vanilla guy / Smirky Tom Cruise lacks the depth for complex, surreal film |newspaper= [[San Francisco Chronicle]] |url= https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Vanilla-guy-Smirky-Tom-Cruise-lacks-the-depth-2839702.php |access-date= February 22, 2020 |archive-date= December 17, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221217120337/https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Vanilla-guy-Smirky-Tom-Cruise-lacks-the-depth-2839702.php |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[Peter Bradshaw]] of ''[[The Guardian]]''<ref name="guardian">{{cite web |last= Bradshaw |first= Peter |author-link= Peter Bradshaw |title= Vanilla Sky |url= https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/jan/25/culture.reviews |website= The Guardian |access-date= May 27, 2010 |date= January 25, 2002 |archive-date= December 17, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221217120337/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/jan/25/culture.reviews |url-status= live }}</ref> and Gareth Von Kallenbach of the publication ''[[Film Threat]]''<ref>{{cite web |author1=Gareth Von Kallebach |title=Vanilla Sky |url=https://www.filmthreat.com/reviews/2392/ |website=[[Film Threat]] |access-date=December 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130123032805/http://www.filmthreat.com/reviews/2392/ |archive-date=January 23, 2013 |date=December 11, 2001}}</ref> compared ''Vanilla Sky'' unfavorably to ''[[Open Your Eyes (1997 film)|Open Your Eyes]]''. Bradshaw says ''Open Your Eyes'' is "certainly more distinctive than" ''Vanilla Sky'', which he describes as an "extraordinarily narcissistic high-concept vanity project for producer-star Tom Cruise." Other reviewers extrapolate from the knowledge that Cruise had bought the rights to do a version of Amenábar's film.<ref name="sfgate"/> A ''[[Village Voice]]'' reviewer characterized ''Vanilla Sky'' as "hauntingly frank about being a manifestation of its star's cosmic [[narcissism]]".<ref>{{cite web |author1=Michael Atkinson |title=Icon See Clearly Now |url=http://www.villagevoice.com:80/film/0150,atkinson,30650,20.html |website=[[The Village Voice]] |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403105246/http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0150,atkinson,30650,20.html |archive-date=April 3, 2008 |date=December 11, 2001 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Kenneth Turan of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called [[Cameron Diaz]] "compelling as the embodiment of crazed sensuality"<ref>{{cite web |author1=Kenneth Turan |author-link= Kenneth Turan |title=From Paella to Pot Roast |url=http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie000099071dec14,0,1592334.story |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=December 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006180150/http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie000099071dec14,0,1592334.story |archive-date=October 6, 2008 |date=December 14, 2011}}</ref> and ''[[The New York Times]]'' reviewer said she gives a "ferociously emotional" performance.<ref name="nytimes"/> Edward Guthmann of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' similarly says of the film, "most impressive is Cameron Diaz, whose fatal-attraction stalker is both heartbreaking and terrifying."<ref name="sfgate" /> For her performance, Diaz won multiple critics' groups awards, as well as being nominated for the [[Golden Globe Award]], [[Screen Actors Guild Award]], [[Critics' Choice Movie Award]], [[Saturn Award]], and [[American Film Institute|AFI Award]]. [[Penélope Cruz]]'s performance earned her a [[Razzie Award]] nomination for Worst Actress (in addition to her roles in ''[[Blow (film)|Blow]]'' and ''[[Captain Corelli's Mandolin (film)|Captain Corelli's Mandolin]]'').